IPS - Negligence and collusion among authorities, mine owners and unions killed 65 miners one year ago in a coalmine in the state of Coahuila, in the north of Mexico, but no one will go to prison for it.
So far, only two bodies have been recovered. The miners were buried under tons of earth after one or more explosions in the shaft where they were working. Recuperating the remaining bodies could take another year or two, even though the company has been working hard to reach them.
The (…)
Home > English > Latin America and the Caribbean
Latin America and the Caribbean
-
One year after the Pasta de Conchos tragedy
MEXICO - Miners Buried by Negligence and ImpunityDiego Cevallos, IPS
21 February 2007, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio -
Follow-up of the conflict in Oaxaca
MEXICO - Community Radio Stations Under FireDiego Cevallos, IPS
6 February 2007, posted by Manuela Garza AscencioFebruary 2, 2007 - IPS - One of the 12 community radio stations operating legally in Mexico has literally come under fire, and its journalists have received death threats and been arrested; another has received warnings for covering the activities of social movements; and a third was closed down at gunpoint by supporters of the local government.
All three cases have been reported to the authorities. The first case, involving the Calenda station in the southern state of Oaxaca, reached the (…) -
MEXICO - Condoms and sexual tolerance in the hands of a detractor
Diego Cevallos, IPS
30 January 2007, posted by Manuela Garza AscencioIPS - Using a condom is not safe, the "morning after" pill is an abortifacient, and campaigns in favour of sexual tolerance promote homosexuality. These are some of the ideas of Mexican Health Minister José Córdova that are alarming social activists and analysts.
But the Catholic Church and conservative organisations are pleased. They opposed the sexual and reproductive health strategies of the Vicente Fox administration (2000-2006) alongside Córdova, who chaired the Congressional Health (…) -
MEXICO - Unprecedented Anti-Drug Trafficking Offensive
Diego Cevallos, IPS
12 January 2007, posted by Manuela Garza AscencioIPS - Military and police forces were deployed in two states in Mexico, and are soon to move into at least one more. They are carrying out an unprecedented operation against drug traffickers caught up in fierce violence over internal turf disputes. But the opposition fears that it may only be for publicity purposes.
Equipped with tanks, helicopters and sophisticated weapons, some 7,000 security troops have been stationed in the western state of Michoacán since December, while about 3,000 (…) -
LATIN AMERICA - The Challenge of Gauging Progress Towards Millennium Development Goals
Daniela Estrada, IPS
6 January 2007, posted by Manuela Garza AscencioIPS - Almost halfway to the deadline for meeting the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), some of the targets are still out of reach of many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. And there is another challenge: strengthening statistical capacity to measure progress.
In September 2000, the United Nations member countries made a commitment to reaching eight MDGs by 2015, such as halving the proportion of people suffering extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary (…) -
HAITI - Chaos Reigns in Haiti
Jean Michel Caroit, TruthOut
2 January 2007, posted by Manuela Garza AscencioWednesday 27 December 2006 - TruthOut - The horrible crime shattered Haiti. Brilliant student Farah Dessources, 20, was tortured and murdered by her kidnappers. Her mutilated body was found in mid-November, despite her mother, of modest means, having paid a ransom. Several days later, on November 25th, the corpse of a six-year-old child, Carl Roobenz Francillon, appeared. Kidnapped at the exit of his school, he had been strangled, even though his parents also had paid what the kidnappers (…)
-
CUBA - On the Threshold of a Critical Year
Dalia Acosta, IPS
1 January 2007, posted by Manuela Garza AscencioIPS - After a year marked by great uncertainty as to the future, Cubans are awaiting 2007 with a sense that it will bring major changes to the lives of every one of the 11.2 million people who live under the government of Fidel Castro.
Will the 80-year-old leader return to power? If he does, will he do it with full capacities? What will happen if he is no longer around? Would Raúl Castro remain the man he seems to be, or would he surprise Cuba and the world with changes? Would it be (…) -
BOLIVIA - Confrontation over Agrarian Reform
Roger Burbach, ALAI
26 December 2006, posted by Manuela Garza AscencioNovember 30, 2006 - ALAI - The government of Evo Morales and the indigenous social movements of Bolivia have won an historic victory with the passage of an agrarian reform law that calls for the “expropriation of lands” that “do not serve a just social-economic function.” According to Miguel Urisote, the director of the Land Foundation, an independent research center in La Paz, “this is a blow to the latifundias, the large estates where many Indians often work in slave-like conditions.” (…)
-
Opinion
MEXICO - Mexican Turbulence: Uprising or Civil War?Immanuel Wallerstein
18 December 2006, posted by DialDecember 15, 2006 - Subcomandante Marcos said last month that Mexico is "on the eve of a great uprising or a civil war." He is continuing "the other campaign" launched by the Zapatistas. And Andrés Manuel López Obrador, candidate of the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) in the election of June 2, 2006, has asserted very loudly, and to very great public support, that his election was stolen. He has refused to recognize Felipe Calderón who took the presidential oath on December 1, and (…)
-
ECUADOR - What Comes With the Leftist Government?
Nelson F. Núñez Vergara
18 December 2006, posted by Nelson F. Núñez VergaraThe official results in Ecuador give 57 % to the candidate of the left, winning in 19 of 22 provinces of the country. It is the major advantage obtained from 1992, in a presidential election. His victory means for Ecuador the beginning of a political process similar to those taking place Venezuela and Bolivia. In the regional area it reinforces the axis of the left with political, economic and military consequences.
The mistakes of the right
The Álvaro Noboa’s first mistake (candidate of (…)